Aymar Embury II

Infobox Person
name = Aymar Embury II
birth_date = June 15, 1880
birth_place = New York City, United States
death_date = November 15, 1966
death_place = Southampton, Long Island, New York
education = Princeton University
occupation = Architect
spouse = Dorothy Coe, Ruth Dean, Josephine Bound, Jane Schabbehar
parents = Aymar Embury, Fannie Miller Bates
children = Edward Coe Embury, Carl Richard Embury, Peter Aymar Embury, Mrs. Hugh Hack

Aymar Embury II (June 15, 1880 – November 15, 1966) was an American architect. He is best known for commissions from the City of New York from the 1930s through to the 1950s. In this period, Embury frequently worked with Robert Moses in the latter's various city and state capacities, especially, early on, in Moses capacity of Parks Commissioner. Many surviving examples of Embury's work comprise of zoos, swimming pools, playgrounds and other recreational structures in New York City parks.

Personal biography

Embury was born in New York City to Aymar Embury and Fannie Miller Bates. cite web
url = http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:3224116&id=I635275183
title = Silobhan's Tree
accessdate = 2006-12-24] Married four times, his first union was with Dorothy Coe in 1904. Upon her death, he married Ruth Dean. Again a widower in 1932, he married Josephine Bound in 1934,Citation
title = JOSEPHINE BOUND BECOMES A BRIDE; Daughter of Mrs. Alexander M. Orr Wed in Grace Church to Aymar Embury 2d.
newspaper = The New York Times
pages = page 25
language = en
publisher = New York Times Company
date = 1934-09-18
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50C11FA3D5D1B728DDDA10994D1405B848FF1D3
accessdate = 2007-05-11] which ended in divorce. Citation
title = Mrs Embury Engaged. "Former Josephine Bound is the Fiancee of Richard Millett"
newspaper = The New York Times
pages = page 22
language = en
publisher = New York Times Company
date = 1948-08-16
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70811FC385A157B93C4A81783D85F4C8485F9
accessdate = 2007-05-11] He was survived by his fourth wife, Jane Schabbehar. From the 1930s on, Embury maintained Manhattan and East Hampton, Long Island residences, and was active in East Hampton society.

Early professional career

Aymar Embury graduated from Princeton University in 1900 with a degree in Civil Engineeringcite web
url = http://etcweb.princeton.edu/Campus/text_postwar.html
title = Firestone and the Post-War Building Boomlet
accessdate = 2006-12-23 ] Citation
title = AYMAR EMBURY, ARCHITECT, DEAD; Designer of Many Buildings and Bridges He Was 86
newspaper = The New York Times
pages = page 47
language = en
publisher = New York Times Company
date = 1966-11-15
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60716F83854117B93C7A8178AD95F428685F9
accessdate = 2007-05-11] and further received a Masters of Science degree in 1901. Following graduate studies, Embury taught architecture at Princeton while also working for various firms in New York City, including Cass Gilbert, George B. Post, Howells & Stokes, and Palmer and Hornbostel. During this period he developed a keen interest in the architecture of small country houses, publishing several books and pamphlets on the subject. In 1905, Embury won both the first and second prize in a design contest sponsored by the Garden City Company for a modest country house in Garden City, Long Island. This gave him visibility as a "society architect"; he acquired a reputation as a builder of country houses for the upper middle class and received many further commissions for such houses in the years surrounding World War I. cite paper
title = ASTORIA PARK POOL AND PLAY CENTER
author = New York Landmarks Preservation Commission
url = http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/astoriapool.pdf
accessdate = 2006-12-24
date = 2006-06-20
id = LP- 2196] cite web
url = http://www.buckhead.net/architecture/embury.html
title = Aymar Embury II
accessdate = 2006-12-23 ]

Military career

Embury served for fourteen months during World War I as a Captain in the Fortieth Engineers, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers cite web
url = http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/artists.htm
title = U. S. Army Official War Artists
accessdate = 2006-12-23

] where he helped establish a unit of eight professional artists to document the activities of the American Expeditionary Force in France. During this time, Capt. Embury designed the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal (Army). cite web
url = http://webpages.charter.net/usaihp/decora.html
title = US Army Decorations
accessdate = 2006-12-24 ] Later, in 1932, he became a Lieutenant Colonel in the Officers Reserve Corps.

Post war activities

By the late 1920s, Embury was well-known and had received a wide range of commissions all over the east coast of the United States, entailing college buildings and social clubs in addition to residences. He designed the Players and Nassau Clubs in Princeton, New Jersey, the Princeton Club in New York City, and the University Club in Washington, D.C.

Work with Robert Moses

In 1934, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia appointed Robert Moses as sole commissioner of a newly unified Department of Parks for New York City, commencing a seven year period of construction and renovation of city parks. Embury, along with landscape architect Gilmore D. Clarke, was a senior member of an 1,800 strong design and construction team that Moses had assembled at the Arsenal in Central Park.cite web
url = http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/parks_history/historic_tour/history_robert_moses_modern.html
title = Robert Moses and the Modern Park System (1929-1965)
accessdate = 2006-12-23 ]

In the following years, Embury was chief or consulting architect in numerous projects in the New York City locale. WPA pools built throughout the city in the mid-1930s, the New York City Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair (Currently the Queens Museum of Art), [cite book
coauthors = Zim, Larry; Lerner, Mel; Rolfes, Herbert
title = The World of Tomorrow The 1939 New York World's Fair
year = 1988
publisher = The Main Street Press
id = ISBN 0-06-015923-5
pages = 140] Triborough Bridge, and Henry Hudson Bridge cite book
title = "WPA Guide to New York City"
year = 1939, reprinted 1982,
pages = 352] Orchard Beach, Bryant Park, the Hofstra University Campus, and Jacob Riis Park.

Later work

Embury remained active throughout the 1950s, turning over his firm to his son, Edward Coe Embury, in 1956. Remaining active as a consulting architect, Embury served on the architectural advisory committee for the old New York Coliseum at Columbus Circle, was a consulting architect for the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, designed the campus playhouse for Hofstra University in Hempstead, Long Island, and the William Church Memorial Playground near Fifth Avenue, and the Donnell Library Center [Citation
title = LIBRARY PROJECT TO COST $1,500,000; Manhattan Alterations
newspaper = The New York Times
pages = 64
language = en
publisher = New York Times Company
date = 1946-11-20
url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0617FD355C107A93C2AB178AD95F428485F9
accessdate = 2007-05-11] , in Manhattan .

= Books by Aymar Embury II =

* " [http://books.google.com/books?id=g3IvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA4&dq=%22One+Hundred+Country+Houses%22 One Hundred Country Houses: Modern American Examples] " 1909, The Century Company
* "The Dutch Colonial House" 1913 McBride, Nast, and Company
* " [http://books.google.com/books?id=MsAgAAAAMAAJ&dq=Embury+%22Country+Houses%22 Early American Churches] " 1914, Doubleday, Page, and Company, New York
* "American Country Houses of Today" 1915, with coauthors Frank Miles Day, Samuel Howe, Bernard Wells Close, Randolph Williams Sexton, and Lewis Augustus Coffin
* "The Livable House: It's Plan and Design" 1917, Moffat, Yard and Co., New York
* "The Aesthetics of Engineering Construction"

References